A resentful young man comes to a better understanding of his place in the world while searching for his estranged father in Kasho Iizuka’s sensitive coming-of-age drama
Mar 15, 2022 • Subscribe
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Angry Son 世界は僕らに気づかない Dir: Kasho Iizuka
A rewrite of my review for the very worthwhile topical film Angry Son, a meaty drama about the mixed-race experience (Filipino-Japanese) in Japan! 世界は僕らに気づかない Dir: Kasho Iizuka [Osaka…
Angry Son 世界は僕らに気づかない Dir: Kashou Iizuka [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]
A long and undisciplined review of the very worthwhile topical film Angry Son! 世界は僕らに気づかない Dir: Kashou Iizuka [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]
Mondays: See You “This” Week! (MONDAYS/このタイムループ、上司に気づかせないと終わらない, Ryo Takebayashi, 2022)
Harried office workers must get through to their dejected salaryman boss if they’re to escape a workplace time loop in Ryo Takebayashi’s zany corporate comedy.
Dead Fishes (僕らはみーんな生きている, Tomoaki Kaneko, 2022)
A young man comes to Tokyo in search of experience but gains more of it than he might have liked in Tomoaki Kaneko’s bleak indie drama.
Hana ni Arashi 10 (はなにあらし)
High school is a weird time. So much is going on in your body, in your head, in your heart. It’s the last time to have fun as…
Hana ni Arashi 11 (はなにあらし)
High school is a weird time. So much is going on in your body, in your head, in your heart. It’s the last time to have fun as…
Hana ni Arashi, Volume 5 (はなにあらし)
While we’re able to enjoy Makoto Hagino’s slow-burn high school Yuri romance, A Tropical Fish Years for Snow in English, there is another Shogagakukan title with a similar…
Hana ni Arashi, Volume 6 (はなにあらし)
Nanoha and Chidori have shared their first kisses and, frankly, they are pretty sure that they no one has noticed, even though it got a little weird between…
Hana ni Arashi, Volume 8, (はなにあらし)
In Hana ni Arashi, Volume 8 (はなにあらし), Nanoha is starting to feel the weight of the real world and isn’t sure that she and Chidori inhabit the same…
Hana ni Arashi, Volume 4 (はなにあらし)
In Volume 1 we met Nanoha and Chidori, two girls who have a secret – they are lovers. They aren’t lovers, but they are in love and they…
Hana ni Arashi, Volume 9 (はなにあらし)
We have watched Nanoha and Chidori since they began dating. For a very long time, it was under the radar, but as they look towards a wider future…
Hana ni Arashi, Volume 11 (はなにあらし)
Nanoha and Chidori are two young woman in love. They know that when they graduate thing will change and their lives will grow more compliacated, but for this…
Hana ni Arashi, Volume 7 (はなにあらし)
In Volume 7 of Hana ni Arashi, (はなにあらし) something finally happens. Well…two things. Remembering that, in this series “happen” is very broadly applied word. ^_^ The first thing…
Angry Son (2022) review [OAFF 2022]
“An incredibly rich and deep narrative that not only delivers a satisfying coming-of-age story but also an elegantly delivered social commentary on some of the frictions marking Japanese…
An Interview with Kasho Iizuka, Director of ANGRY SON [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]
An interview with Kasho Iizuka about the making of his film ANGRY SON, shown as part of Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022.
Why You Can’t Be Prime Minister (なぜ君は総理大臣になれないのか, Arata Oshima, 2020)
Arata Oshima follows idealistic politician Junya Ogawa over 17 years in order to explore why his goal of becoming prime minister remains forever elusive
You’ll Fall For Me (君は僕をスキになる, Takayoshi Watanabe, 1989)
Two mismatched friends find their relationship strained when they unwittingly end up falling for the same guy in Takayoshi Watanabe’s charmingly absurd Christmas rom-com.
Yuri Manga: Hana ni Arashi, Volume 2 (はなにあらし)
In Volume 1, we met Nanoha and Chidori, two high school students who are keeping a secret from their friends – they are going out with each other.…
Yuri Manga: Hana ni Arashi, Volume 3 (はなにあらし)
Chidori and Nanoha have a secret, we are told in Volume 1 and Volume 2. They are lovers, we are told. And we will have to believe what…
From the End of the World (世界の終わりから, Kazuaki Kiriya, 2023)
Charged with the responsibility of saving the world, a teenage girl wonders if she should in Kazuaki Kiriya’s pre-apocalyptic drama.
Lonely Girl ni Sakaraenai, Volume 1 (ロンリーガールに逆らえない)
Sakuraii is a model student but has a fatal flaw – she absolutely sucks at tests. If it weren’t for tests, she’d have no trouble at all getting…
Lonely Girl ni Sakaraenai, Volume 2 (ロンリーガールに逆らえない)
The best romantic comedies, in my opinion, are ones that stop trying to be a comedy. In Volume 1, this series was definitely a comedy. Lonely Girl ni…
Kimi no tame ni Sekai ha Aru (きみのために世界はある)
As you may remember, I’m a huge fan of Usui Shio’s series Kaketa Tsuki to Donuts. So when a collection of Usui-sensei’s work came out from Ichijinsha, I…
Kimi to Shiranai Natsu ni Naru, Volume 1 (君としらない夏になる)
Kimi to Shiranai Natsu ni Naru, Volume 1 (君としらない夏になる), subtitled in English “Throw away the suit together,” is one of my favorite reads currently in Comic Yuri Hime…
A Great Detective Never Lies / 名探偵は嘘をつかない
A Great Detective Never Lies is slightly convoluted, so bear with me for a moment.
Kininatteru Hito Ga Otoko Janakatta, Volume 1 (気になってる人が男じゃなかった)
Aya is a high school student who loves music of the 90s-00s. She’s content to sit and listen to the Foo Fighters in her ear buds, but when…
Kininatteru Hito Ga Otoko Janakatta, Volume 2 (気になってる人が男じゃなかった)
In Volume 1, we met Ohsawa Aya, a fashionable girl in most ways – except for her retro taste in music. When she walks into a shabby CD…
Futari ha Daitai Konna Kanji (ふたりはだいたいこんなかんじ)
In the Yuri world Ikeda Takashi is best known for Sasamekikoto / Whispered Words in English, from One Peace Books. That series made fun of every Yuri trope,…
What does まどかが好きな人は二人いる mean?
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Ai ni Airashi Itoshi Anata (愛に愛らし愛しいあなた)
Suzuki Yufuko’s Ai ni Airashi Itoshi Anata (愛に愛らし愛しいあなた) was not at all what I expected it to be. No, scratch that. It was exactly everything I expected it…
確か・確かに
You sure about that? - How to Japanese - September 2024
Sayonara, Girls (少女は卒業しない, Shun Nakagawa, 2022)
A collection of teens contemplate the ghosts of youth in facing graduation from a school soon to be demolished in Shun Nakagawa’s poignant drama.
We Couldn’t Become Adults ボクたちはみんな大人になれなかった (2021) Director: Yoshihiro Mori
We Couldn’t Become Adults ボクたちはみんな大人になれなかった (2021), by director Yoshihiro Mori, is a well-acted and well-shot drama about a 40-something man in contemporary Japan looking back at his life (v…
Director Spotlight #1: “Angry Son”
Dir. IIZUKA Kasho (Angry Son) Born in 1990 in Gunma Prefecture. He studied under film director NEGISHI Yoshitaro and screenwriter Masato Kato while…
Eternally Younger Than Those Idiots (君は永遠にそいつらより若い, Ryuhei Yoshino, 2021)
An insecure young woman struggles to assume her place in the world while preparing to leave the aimless security of college life for an uncertain adulthood in Ryuhei…
Futari ha Daitai Konna Kanji, Volume 3 (ふたりはだいたいこんなかんじ)
One of the defining characteristics of an adult life is facing setbacks. You can work really hard, gambare with all you have and still not achieve the goal.…
Futari ha Daitai Konna Kanji, Volume 2 (ふたりはだいたいこんなかんじ)
Okay, so here’s a mood. You like a creator, so when they announce a new book or series, you’re cautiously optimistic at the least. You know it might…
Futari ha Daitai Konna Kanji, Volume 4 (ふたりはだいたいこんなかんじ)
In Futari ha Daitai Konna Kanji, Volume 4 (ふたりはだいたいこんなかんじ) Ikeda Takashi brings his specific brand of wacky slice-of-life to a fantastic conclusion. In the first three volumes of…
『どれが恋かがわからない』奥たまむし先生インタビュー(第二回)
THE YURI TIMESでは、漫画『どれが恋かがわからない』(KADOKAWA)の著者、奥たまむし先生にインタビューさせていただきました。
『どれが恋かがわからない』奥たまむし先生インタビュー(第一回)
THE YURI TIMESでは、漫画『どれが恋かがわからない』(KADOKAWA)の著者、奥たまむし先生にインタビューさせていただきました。
Yellow Crow (黄色いからす, Heinosuke Gosho, 1957)
A small family struggles to repair itself after eight years of wartime separation in Heinosuke Gosho’s post-war melodrama.
Re:Zero Starting Life in Another World Re:ゼロから始める異世界生活 Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu
A hikkikomori, fit, single-child boy who stopped going to school one day after failing to make friends, experiences nausea after leaving a convenience store and the world distorts.…
Kininatteru Hito Ga Otoko Janakatta Drama CD, Special Edition (ドラマCD 気になってる人が男じゃなかった)
Last week, I was able to review the upcoming Yen Press release of Sumiko Arai’s popular manga The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t A Guy At All.…
Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (ドロステのはてで僕ら, Junta Yamaguchi, 2020)
A diffident cafe owner faces an existential dilemma when trapped in a time loop with himself from two minutes previously in Yamaguchi’s meticulously plotted farce
New Moomin 51/52 - I Hate You, Snufkin (スナフキンなんか大きらい) (1972) (English subtitles)
It's almost time for hibernation in Moominvalley, and Moomin is mostly idling. After he and his friends wonder why Snufkin has a guitar, he goes to Snufkin's tent…
Nobody Can Pass Judgment on Me / 誰も僕を裁けない
I’m fairly certain the title of the book is meant to be a defense against reading erotica in public… Anyway, Nobody Can Pass Judgment on Me...
The Green Music Box (緑はるかに, Umetsugu Inoue, 1955)
A lonely little girl finds herself dragged into conspiracy when her father is kidnapped by spies in Umetsugu Inoue’s bizarre musical adventure.
A Girl in My Room 左様なら今晩は (2022) Director: Natsuki Takahashi
A Girl in My Room 左様なら今晩は (2022), by director Natsuki Takahashi, is a cute supernatural drama with shades of romance and sadness.
My Name is Yours (君が世界のはじまり, Momoko Fukuda, 2020)
A collection of Osaka teens begin to find a sense of solidarity in the wake of a violent crime in Momoko Fukuda’s nostalgic teen drama
Dear Etranger / 幼な子われらに生まれ
It’s no secret that divorce is messy and complicated, particularly when children are involved. From the child’s perspective, it may be the moment that you realize your parents…